Auburn Community Forest Art Show Exhibit Opening

CELEBRATE AUBURN’S URBAN FOREST BY VIEWING INSPIRATIONAL PAINTINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE CITY’S TREES AT MULTIPLE VENUES

Auburn’s first-ever art show devoted to community trees will begin with a 5:30 p.m. reception on Friday, September 2, at the Equal Rights Heritage Center in downtown Auburn, New York

September 2 – October 30, 2022

Equal Rights Heritage Center  |  Schweinfurth Art Center

Willard Memorial Chapel  |  Cayuga Museum  |  Cafe 108

The Auburn Community Forest Art Show is sponsored by the City of Auburn Department of Engineering Services to support the drafting of the city’s very first Community Forest Management Plan.  Over the past few months, Auburn residents have engaged in a dialogue about the state of the local forest to shape a vision for how to take care of the street, park, and open-space trees over the next quarter century.

“We need more than statistics, charts, and maps to understand Auburn’s urban forest,” said Walt Aikman, the forester helping the City of Auburn draft the management plan.  “Our trees absorb a lot of carbon, drink up a lot of storm water, and help keep us cool in summer, and the majesty and magic they have grounds our history and motivates us to plan for a sustainable future.”

As part of the community forest planning process, the city invited local and regional artists to contribute their impressions of trees growing in Auburn, and present them in such a way to become a vital part of the final document.  Auburn’s artist community responded, and works from the following celebrated talents include:

Jennifer Duke Anstey

Gail Demi

Joshua Ely

Tom Hussey

Arthur Hutchinson

Peggy Pelletier

Rhonda Stanford-Zahn

Tim Tucker

The September First Friday Auburn Tree Art Show and Opening features a range of fascinating and powerful interpretations of some of Auburn’s most celebrated trees.  From the White oaks of the South Street corridor to the Cayuga Museum’s Ginkgo tree, talented artists generously shared their time to draw, paint, and photograph many of Auburn’s most celebrated tree treasures, as well as some of the lesser known trees that populate the city’s streets and parks.

The forest management planning effort in Auburn is made possible with the funding support of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Urban and Community Forestry Program.